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I
have noticed a tendency for attendance to fluctuate
back-and-forth from week to week in most churches. There will be a decent attendance one week and, when the next week comes, there will
be something like a 20 person drop-off.
This
back-and-forth issue has been going on for a long time in most churches.

I started researching this issue
in other sources. I have learned that this is not only an RHCC
problem, but it is an epidemic in American churches across all denominations and
traditions. For example, one friend from
a United Methodist, city church of decent size said that the average attendance
for their young adults is 1 of 4 Sundays per month. Another friend from a Southern Baptist, rural
church with an attendance of 1,400 per week said that folks come 2 of 4 Sundays
per month.

Now, I have already presented this attendance issue as a
“problem.” Over the next several weeks,
I plan to write articles addressing this issue and why I think it is a problem
that must be fixed. I am not concerned
about this out of impure motives, I do not think, and maybe I can prove that in
these articles. I do not want to be
legalistic or judgmental about attendance.
Attending church does not get someone to heaven, at least not directly
(more about that later); and I am not one to only focus on “the numbers.” Attendance, I will say from the start, is
vitally important to the life of the Christian and the Christian community, and
it must not be neglected or abandoned.

Can this problem be fixed? I do not know. It takes a lot to undue a culture that has
been cultivated for decades. Yet, my
task as the pastor-teacher of the church is to share with you what the Bible
says about the Christian life. I figured
that I had three options: continually stress over the issue; learn to ignore
it; or tackle it head-on. I am not one
to shy away from a challenge, so I have decided to tackle the issue head
on. I will do what I can to teach our
church what the Bible says about these things and to encourage everyone in
their Christian Faith.

The go-to passage for church attendance is Hebrews
10:24-25. There will most likely be many
other things that I will share outside of this passage, but let us park here
for a few weeks. The author begins his final
commands with the words, “Let us consider one another. . . .” The term “consider” is the controlling verb for
these two important verses. The word
means “to take notice;” or “pay attention to;” or “look closely at;” or
“concentrate by fixing one’s thinking on something.” What is it that we are to concentrate
on? Well, it is actually a Who.
We are to consider “one another.”
Christians are to set their minds on other Christians. We are to look out for the well-being of
fellow believers. The Christian life is
not an isolated life. It is not an
independent life. We should not, and
really cannot, go at it alone. We need
to pay attention to others, and, wait for it, we need others to pay attention
to us. This is where we start, “Christians,
let us consider one another.”

In Hebrews 6:1, the NKJV says, “Let us go on to
perfection.” Many other modern
translations probably convey the meaning more clearly by using the word,
“Maturity.” So, the NIV says, “Therefore
let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward
to maturity.”

Let us start with the subject of what this verse does not
mean before moving to its actual meaning.
When the writer commands believers to leave behind or move beyond the
elementary doctrines concerning Christ, he does not mean that we are to move on
to something different. We do not become
Christians one way and then remain Christians in an entirely different
way. No, we are converted by faith, and
we continue in our salvation by faith.
Justification (being made “right” with God) and sanctification
(progressively becoming holy) are both by faith. The Scripture says in multiple places that
the just shall live by faith. Salvation
is from faith to faith. Faith in the
beginning; faith in the end; and faith everywhere in between. One does not move beyond salvation by grace
through faith. One does not move beyond
Christ.

Heb 6:1 is an exhortation to Christians to grow in their
faith and in the Faith. To do so, we
must move beyond the elementary teachings of Christ in the sense that we must
build upon the foundational principles that we have learned in our walk with
the Lord. We should not become stagnant
by only teaching and discussing the same old things all the time. We should be able to build upon the simple
Gospel message that we heard in the first place. We do not move beyond the Gospel, but we can
progress much farther in our understanding of that wonderful message. We can grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord.

Why is Christian growth necessary? Well, for one, it is commanded by the Lord
all over Scripture. This is His will for
us. The Lord is pleased and glorified by
our continued progress in the faith.
Also, continued growth ensures the believer that he/she is not going to
apostatize, that is, turn away from so great a salvation. As move grow in our faith, we grow closer and
closer to the Lord and farther away from the world. We move more and more into grace and farther
away from Hell as we mature in our relationship with Christ.

Thus, my ministry in the church, from the pulpit, and online
(progressandjoy.org, Midweek eBulletins, Facebook, etc.) is, “For Progress and
Joy in Christ.”

I have a scenario that I would like for you to imagine,
and some of you may have been in this situation at one time or another. Imagine that you have an awful,
life-threatening disease. Imagine how
desperate you would be. Now imagine that
you have the cure: you have the medicine and the treatments. You know exactly what it takes to cure the
disease, and there are millions of people all over the country and globe that
have the same disease. What would you
do? Would it suffice to think that you
could just live a healthy life, be positive and encouraging, and people would
see you and discover the cure? Could you
just set a great example of what a cured person looks like?

What if you had a neighbor that lived directly beside
your house, a woman who had the same disease that you had? Would you just smile and wave when you saw
her? Could you love her to the
cure? Or, what if another neighbor had a
teenage son who was struggling with the same disease and was on his
deathbed? Would you visit him and show
him how healthy you are? Would you keep
your mouth shut and let your life do all the talking? Or, would you visit the woman beside you and
tell her exactly what combination of treatments and medicine she needs? Would you visit the teenaged boy and his
family to tell them how simple the cure is?
Would you lead the way with your life and example as well as with the
words and directions to the cure?

I hope that you would open your mouth and share.

READ Scripture-
This is the Word of God

Main
Point:

The apostolic team greets the
Thessalonians and state their practice of regularly giving thanks to God for
the church. The missionaries are
confident that the Thessalonians are born again. They have seen the fruit of it with their own
eyes, and their faith was being talked about all over the place.

Faith, Love, and
Hope (1-4)

Isn’t it nice to have some Christian friends whom you can
be thankful for? How often do we give
thanks to God for those people? How
often do we thank the Lord for our church family? Paul could not help but remember the
wonderful conversion of the Thessalonians and the relationship that he had
built with them in only a short time.
When he thought of them, he could not help but be thankful to God for
them.

Notice what it was that he remembered. There is a triad of things in the third verse
that the missionary team constantly remembered of them: (1) work of faith, (2)
labor of love, and (3) patience of hope. Here we can see one of Paul’s favorite triads:
faith, love, and hope which has been called by another author, “The trinity of
classic Christian virtues” (Green, 89).
Chapter three shows us that Timothy returned to Paul and the others with
the report of the Thessalonians faith and love and their steadfastness (see
3:6-8). These three fruits are “in our
Lord.” These are activities that they
are carrying out because of their conversion.
They are being changed from the inside-out. We can spend day-after-day and
year-after-year attempting to change someone’s behavior, but only the work of
God in someone’s soul can do that. They
may, for a time, be able to get things straight, but it would only be
artificial. Behavior can truly change
for the long-term if there is an inner conversion. That is what happened among the Thessalonians
Christians.

It seems to me that these three actions are in a certain
order. Faith comes first. We must believe that Christ is who He claims
to be. We must trust that what He has
done on the cross is enough to bring us into a right relationship with God and
to save us. The next phase in the
Christian’s conversion is growth in our love for God and one another. We may even say that love for our neighbors
develops so that we evangelize those around us.
Love is what Jesus said is the fulfilment of all the Law, and it is the
theme of the New Testament. As we
continue to develop in our Christian lives, we begin to see more clearly and
want more deeply to experience the return of Christ. Our hope is in Him for the future and for all
eternity. So, these three virtues are
not some abstract idea. These are
experienced deep in the soul and effect how we interact with the world around
us. We are not closed off from the
world. We live in the here and now
working by faith, laboring in love, and patiently hoping in God. Paul knew the Thessalonians were the “elect
of God” because he could see the work of God in their lives and in their
church. I hope the same is said of us.

The Gospel’s
Coming (5)

Another triad is given in verse five. The Gospel most certainly came to the Thessalonians
in words. The Gospel always comes in
words. We should strive to demonstrate
the Gospel in our behavior, but the Gospel must be shared in words. Think back to our original scenario of being
cured from a life-threatening illness.
If we found a cure for cancer, we would broadcast it all over the world,
wouldn’t we? We would write articles
about it. The news would show it
endlessly on TV. We would write books
about it. We would call our
friends. We would post it on the
internet and more. The Gospel must be in
shared with words. It must be shared
fervently. Pulpits may reach a few
people. I may be able to share the Good
News with 70 on a Sunday, but if each of us shared the Good News during the
week, how many could we reach?

Excitingly, Paul says that the Gospel came to them not
simply in words but was accompanied by: (1) power, (2) the Holy Spirit, and (3)
much assurance. Then, at the end of
verse five, we are told that the word also came by example. We should strive to live a life that
exemplifies the Gospel AND to open our mouths and share it. God uses that testimony and works miracles in
people’s lives. The power comes from
Him. By the Spirit, He changes folks
inside-out.

The Marks of True
Conversion (6-10)

How does the apostle know that the
Thessalonians are the “elect of God?” He
can see their faith, love, and hope. He
can see the fruit of their Christian commitment. There are marks of true conversion that are showing
in their lives and in their church. The
apostle recognizes growth in the believers.

The have become imitators of the
apostolic team and the Lord (6). They
received the Gospel in much affliction.
Like their apostle and their Lord, they suffered much, but continued
with the joy of the Spirit. Their church
was born into affliction, but they pressed on.

Not only did the Thessalonians
receive the Gospel, but, in turn, they became preachers of the Gospel. Like Paul, they experienced Christ’s
redeeming work and wanted others to have the same. Remember, Paul says in another place, “Follow
me as I follow Christ.” Disciples are disciple-makers. Disciple-making is a mark of true conversion.

The have become a model for the
gospel (7-10). In every place people were
talking about them (7-9a). Their
conversion is exemplary (9b-10). They
welcomed the apostolic team (9b). They
turned away from idols (9c). They turned
to the true God and now await eschatological salvation (10).

Description of Jesus: God’s Son

from heaven

raised from the dead

delivers us from the wrath to come

Conclusion and Christian
Application

(1) What fruits have you seen in your life and the lives of those
around you that confirm a new birth?

(2) What kind of example are you setting for those around you? Should we plan to influence others?

The argument of Christ’s teachings on forgiveness
versus the apostle Paul’s teaching on the same subject once came up in a
conversation I had with someone.
Apparently, it is a common understanding among some Christians that
Christ’s words are greater than Paul’s or any other biblical author. I have a few objections to this line of
thinking.

First, all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim
3:16-17). From the Old Testament to the
New, all of the books of the Bible are uniquely inspired by God. Now, some books or portions of books may be
more edifying to Christians than others, but all Scripture is inspired and
authoritative over our lives.

Second, we affirm that all 66 books of the Bible
are Scripture, and we even have internal evidence to this fact. The apostle Peter refers to Paul’s writings “Scripture”
(2 Pet 3:15-16). So then, the great
apostle Peter confirms that what Paul writes is from God.

Third, Christians have held for centuries that the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9; 2 Cor 3:17; Gal 4:6; 1 Pet
1:11). This is the great mystery of the
Trinity. This is Christian
doctrine. The presence of the Spirit is
the presence of Christ (even Christ taught that He would come again to the
disciples by means of the Spirit [John 14:15-18]). The work of the Spirit is the work of
Christ. Jesus also promised that the
Spirit would come to teach (John 16:13-15).
We know that the Holy Spirit is the One who moved the prophets of old to
write Scripture (2 Pet 1:21), and, based on the passages just seen in John, we
believe that the Spirit of Christ inspired the New Testament authors to write
Scripture as well.

Therefore, the whole Bible is authoritative because
the whole Bible is the Word of God. The
whole Bible has been inspired by Christ.
Thus, Christ and Paul do not contradict one another. They cannot contradict one another. There is no scenario where one should say,
“I’m taking Jesus’ word on this over Paul’s.”
The two always agree. Paul, as an
apostle, fully represents Christ. Paul,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes Christ’s words. The whole Bible fits together into a
beautiful revelation of God’s will for this world and our lives.